22 definitions
by
Diane aka the BITCH

The world's oldest continually valid food and drink regulation. The reason for the law was to assure that valuable bread cereals would be used for beer brewing.

The actual Purity Law is a result of the Bavarian Duke, Wilhelm IV. He instated the law at the Ingolstadt Parliament in 1516. The reason to institute such a law was mainly the quality of "Beers" at that time. At that time, spices used were fruits, herbs, weeds such as anis, myrtle, oak leaves, ivy (poisonous), along with the poisonous seeds of herbstzeitlosen, raspberries, elderberry, caraway, lavender, dandelion, bay leaves, balm, mint, nutmeg, cherry leaves, plums, rose leaves, rosemary, wild rosemary, schluessel flowers, juniper berries, and lemon were normally used for brewing. Thereby, there were certain reasons for these uses. As an example, some ingredients were used as a substitute for hops, others for the intoxicating effect, others to extend the shelf life. It is easy to see that beers at that time had little to do with what we know today as beer.

Thank goodness for the German Purity Law of 1516. If not beer would taste like crap and we would die of food poisoning.

Colt government model .45 pistol.
UNITED STATES PROPERTY M 1911 A1 U.S.ARMY. Designed by John Browning. The original 1911 was adopted by the U.S. Army in May of 1911. In 1924 after several changes were adopted the pistol's designation was changed to the Model 1911 A1. The .45 ACP pistol served the U.S. Military through WWI, WWII, Korean and Vietnam until the M9 (Beretta 9mm) was adopted in 1985.

The informal, slightly tongue-in-cheek title given to a respected individual in the open source development community who sets general directions and makes final calls in certain situations within the scope of a given project. The BDFL is a tacit acknowledgement that communal, consensus-based decision making within the open source community occasionally runs up against obstacles, in which case a single authoritative voice can be useful. That BDFLs survive and flourish in these otherwise anarchistic contexts is attributed to their personal charisma and their reluctance to wield their power except in rare moments.

Of course, a project coordinator cannot really be anything like a dictator in the sense that he or she ultimately cannot enforce a decision, since a project fork is always possible.

Not all, or even most, open source projects have a BDFL.

Note the difference from the historical meaning of benevolent dictator, which is used in a political context.

List of Benevolent Dictators for Life

Blender
Ton Roosendaal

Drupal content management framework
Dries Buytaert

Linux kernel
Linus Torvalds, explicitly recognising the "benevolent dictator" epithet, e.g. in the interview published August 18, 2004 in Business Week

OpenBSD operating system
Theo de Raadt

Perl programming language
Larry Wall

PHP programming language
Rasmus Lerdorf

Python programming language
Guido van Rossum, known for his conservatism in changing Python. Very little changes between Python versions, and what does change tends to be considered and discussed for months or years in advance.

ReiserFS
Hans Reiser

Samba software
Andrew "Tridge" Tridgell

TTDPatch
Josef Drexler

Wikipedia
Jimbo Wales, who however is not convinced he can be qualified as a "benevolent dictator" since wikis require less centralized management than typical software projects.

WINE, the Open source implementation of the Windows API
Alexandre Julliard

Slackware, the most Unix-like Linux distribution, known for stability and speed.
Pat Volkerding

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

Our BDFL is so awesome. He is so relaxed and even asks for our input. He is the r0x0r!

The Warsteiner Brewery lies deep in the heart of the Arnsberger Forestpark (Arnesberg Forest Nature Park) outside of Warstein, Germany in the north central section of the country. The Cramer family have been brewing beer since 1753, from the hand blown bottles and crude copper pots of the Cramer family’s German kitchen to the current brewery which stands as a benchmark in modern brewing. Its systems and processes represent a single-minded commitment to modern technology in brewing.

The biers:

WARSTEINER Premium Verum

A a pilsner style beer brewed according to German Purity Law of 1516. With a smooth, rich-full bodied taste wrapped in a thick creamy head and a refreshing hop finish with no aftertaste. Warsteiner quenches the beer lover's thirst for a clean, crisp, refreshing beer taste.

WARSTEINER Premium Dunkel

Dunkel = German for Dark

Traditional German dark brown lager brewed according to German Purity Law of 1516. Offers beer lovers incomparable taste satisfaction with its subtle spiciness, delicate aroma, and balance. What makes premium Dunkel distinctive among dark beers, is its thirst quenching, refreshingly drinkable flavor.

WARSTEINER Premium Fresh

A non-alcoholic beer, named Fresh because of its uncommonly Fresh taste. Fresh is brewed according to the German Purity Law of 1516 with the same care as Premium Verum, then the alcohol is carefully removed in a gentle process in order to retain the refreshing flavor of WARSTEINER Premium Verum without the alcohol.